Meet Delhi Duo Who Are Utilizing Crop Residue For Electricity Generation

Every year the air quality drastically declines during October-November when stubble burning is carried out by the farmers of Punjab and Haryana.

For utilizing crop residue and dealing with the problem of increasing air pollution, Aayushi and Aru Mangla started their enterprise RY energies in 2017. As a solution, they decided to provide farmers with a viable alternative to the crop residue burning and a rich quality biomass resource to power plants. Although the practice of stubble burning is the cheapest way through which they could get rid of crop residue, it is not sustainable for the environment.

In conversation with The Logical Indian, Aayushi says, "The open burning of crop residues is amongst the major contributors in deterioration of the air quality, particularly in North India. Around 35 million tonnes of crop residue is burnt annually in Punjab and Haryana alone. And the quantum of the problem can be estimated from the fact that each tonne of crop residue on burning releases around 3 kg of particulate matter, 60 kg of CO2, 1,460 kg of CO2, 199 kg of ash and 2 kg of SO2. This defines how crucial it is to curb this harmful practice."

Both the founders of RY energies came up with this idea while they were in college. With both of them interested in working towards creating a sustainable alternative for farmers, they started working together on it. They came in contact with the farmers and tried to convince them about the disadvantages of burning the crop residue. After that, they were convinced to provide a rich quality biomass resource, and it was supplied to end-users, to enable its utilisation for productive uses, like energy and biofuel generation.

The one-of-its-kind entity named ReneYou Greentech provides professional biomass supply chain services to creates a favourable solution for farmers, environment and biomass-based power plants and industries by sourcing crop residue, like paddy straw, from farms and processing it into standardised and rich quality biomass resource, which is supplied to be used as a fuel or raw material in power plants & industries, thereby preventing open burning of crop residue.

"Our professional biomass supply chain solution is also a win-win solution for farmers where we help them to get rid of the crop residues by timely clearing their farms free of cost. We have impacted around 110 farmers through our operations so far," shares Aayushi with The Logical Indian.

Their organisation is receiving mentorship from TERI's (The Energy and Research Institute) biomass leaders under StartupIndia Academia Alliance programme and has also been recognized by the Delhi Government. Both of them now want to use the latest technologies through which they could bring a sustainable long-term solution to the problem of stubble burning.

The Logical Indian appreciates the efforts of the duo young leaders who are striving for a cleaner environment.

Also Read: Scientists Develop Technique To Produce Biofuel From Algae To Boost India's Clean Energy Efforts